Build a new Hardy Boys series

[SDLagent]

I'm sure most, if not all of us, have thought about creating our own Hardy Boys series. But, sadly, that job has always belonged to someone else - most recently, to the shadowy figures behind Simon & Schuster's Children's Publishing Division who, for the most part, seem to be disinterested in the series.

So, since none of us can really be in charge of a Hardy Boys series, we'll just have to settle for the next best thing. Talk about what we would do, and what we'd do better then S&S. And maybe even write some fan fiction some day. Not that we don't already do that, but I thought this would be fun if we each created a series following the same basic outline as shown below.

Name: What would your name your series?
Continuity: What continuity would your series exist in? The Original continuity? Casefiles continuity? Undercover Brothers continuity? Or would you reboot the Hardy World, and create an entirely new continuity?
Premise: In the Originals Frank and Joe with the help of their chums, and in the Casefiles they fight terrorists, what would the basic plot line of your series be?
Characters: Obviously, the Hardy boys would be the stars of the show, but they need a good supporting cast.

Your idea doesn't have to be long and detailed (but that, of course, would be good). The more people who post ideas the better. And need I say, feel free to post multiple series ideas.

[MacGyver]

Sounds like a fun idea. Well, here's one idea for a possible series of stories for The Hardy Boys.

Name: The Hardy Boys: Unsolved Mysteries
Continuity: I would try to have this be somewhat of a hybrid. I'd like to incorporate aspects of the Original series along with a bit of the Casefiles and Undercover Brothers world. I've always seen some of that undercover/secret agency stuff existing in all 3 worlds- "The Secret Agent of Flight 101" has SKOOL and UGLI, The Casefiles has The Network and The Assassins and Undercover Brothers has ATAC. Even the 3rd. Season of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries had Frank and Joe working for The Justice Department.
So I'd like to merge some of those together. It would essentially be the Casefiles world, and ATAC would be revealed to be a branch of The Network that Frank and Joe work with and maybe even mentor other agents. Even SKOOL could be referenced as an earlier version of this.
Premise: With Frank and Joe still doing their ATAC/Network cases on occasion, I think I would have them distanced somewhat and mentoring possible other agents some during the ongoing main cases they'd be working. Essentially, the idea is for The Hardy Boys to dig through both their father's old files and even possibly some of ATAC/The Network's old cases and start tackling all "the ones that got away". All the unresolved and unsolved cases could be dug back up with Frank and Joe digging in fresh and trying to solve them. (Hence the name of the series. )  This could mean everything from resolving the murder of Iola Morton and the Lazarus gang and Iola's eventual return to many other things. (This would probably be the first case. The last lines of "The Lazarus Plot" come to mind where Frank and Joe vowed that the mystery of Iola's death would always be on the top of the list of their mysteries.)
I would also like to see more of The Assassins making a return and The Hardy Boys capturing more of their gang and shutting them down. They could also have more run-ins with MUX and with Charity. There's a lot of storylines that could be explored.
Characters: Frank and Joe Hardy, of course. I would also try to have fairly regular appearances from Fenton Hardy, Laura Hardy and Aunt Gertrude. (I think I might have to go a bit classic here and refer to her as Aunt Gertrude rather than Aunt Trudy. lol) Chet Morton would be a pretty regular character along with Phil Cohen, Tony Prito, Biff Hooper and Jerry Gilroy. Iola Morton and Callie Shaw would certainly be in there too. And I think I'd throw in their newer friend Jamal Hawkins from the Digests, since he did show up in a number of the later books. For that matter, Liz Webling could make appearances some too. And every now and then maybe a crossover with Nancy Drew, George Fayne, Bess Marvin and Ned Nickerson. And hey- maybe Tom Swift too, while we're at it. And definitely Chief Ezra Collig would be there, along with Con Riley- because I would like to have some cases be more locally-based in Bayport. (These would be more of Fenton Hardy's old cases. The Network's old cases would be the more international ones.) I'd also like to see the return of Sam Radley and Jack Wayne and maybe even Oscar Smuff here and there. Maybe even a shout out for Hurd Applegate.

Anyway, that's my idea.
   

[SDLagent]

I like it. I've always played around with idea of one big hybrid continuity. I'll post my series idea soon.

[hardygirl847]

Sounds cool MacGyver...especially with exploring Iola's death and other mysteries they never really wrapped up.

[MacGyver]

Thanks- I agree that there's a lot of things in The Hardys' past that could still be explored further. What about another appearance from Chris Hardy, for that matter? That was an interesting little storyline in "Double Exposure". And I also would like to allow a Hardy Boys series to be sort of a hybrid of the various continuities so that there could be a way to bring them together and still allow fans who may prefer various series to enjoy a little bit from each of those worlds.

[SDLagent]

Name: The Hardy Boys vs. the World
Continuity: Casefiles.
Premise: After they are framed for murder, Frank and Joe find themselves on the lam! The Hardys struggle to clear their name, but with criminals and crime-fighters, alike, out to get them, it's a uphill battle.
Characters: Fenton, Laura, Gertrude. The Gray Man and a few other Network agents show-up on a regular basis, but this time as the Hardys enemies. The boys also clash with the Assassins, and even the BPD. 

[hardygirl847]

Name: The Hardy Boys vs. the World
Continuity: Casefiles.
Premise: After they are framed for murder, Frank and Joe find themselves on the lam! The Hardys struggle to clear their name, but with criminals and crime-fighters, alike, out to get them, it's a uphill battle.
Characters: Fenton, Laura, Gertrude. The Gray Man and a few other Network agents show-up on a regular basis, but this time as the Hardys enemies. The boys also clash with the Assassins, and even the BPD. 

I would read that! AND it gives me ideas...lol I'm sure there is some kind of fanfic out there with some of these elements. It definitely sounds intriguing. OK...now go write it Spencer!

[MacGyver]

Very cool, dude.
This would certainly be something that's been explored somewhat in some of the books, but never on that kind of scale. That would be pretty neat. Some of the Casefiles sort of got The Hardy Boys into that kind of situation where they didn't know who they could trust and those were always really interesting. (I'm mainly thinking of "Too Many Traitors" here- one of my all time favorites.) But the kind of premise you have here would be on a level of Jason Bourne- like I said, nice.

[hardygirl847]

Seriously Spencer. Now you have to write this. I WANT TO KNOW! It's going to bug me now...and I already have too many "plot bunnies" going around in my head.

[SDLagent]

I actually planned-out the first novel (and even wrote the first chapter of it) of this would-be series, awhile back, so who knows...

[hardygirl847]

   *awaits Spencer's story*